Mask of the Betrayer

[StinkyPinky]

Has anyone played this expansion? I really enjoyed it. The story was great, and the epic levels really made the gameplay more interesting. I enjoyed the ending as well.

For those who have NWN2 and thought the game was a bit "meh", I'd suggest you try the expansion. It's the game NWN2 should have been.

 

[MarcVenice]

Haven't had the time to get around to even installing it, in fact, I've still got 2 packaged games laying on my desk waiting to be unwrapped and reviewed To bad the NWN2 publisher didn't bother sending us a reviewcopy for this one

 

[Andy22]

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
Has anyone played this expansion? I really enjoyed it. The story was great, and the epic levels really made the gameplay more interesting. I enjoyed the ending as well.

For those who have NWN2 and thought the game was a bit "meh", I'd suggest you try the expansion. It's the game NWN2 should have been.

So is it a game by itself meaning no ties to the original story in NWN2? Do you need to have characters at a certain level or can you roll new ones?

 

[StinkyPinky]

Originally posted by: Andy22

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
Has anyone played this expansion? I really enjoyed it. The story was great, and the epic levels really made the gameplay more interesting. I enjoyed the ending as well.

For those who have NWN2 and thought the game was a bit "meh", I'd suggest you try the expansion. It's the game NWN2 should have been.

So is it a game by itself meaning no ties to the original story in NWN2? Do you need to have characters at a certain level or can you roll new ones?

No, the story is linked with NWN2. I'd suggest playing the vanilla game first as the plot of the expansion refers to it a lot as you are the same guy from the original. However the expansion is in a new location and you have totally new (more interesting) NPC sidekicks.

You really need to have a character at level 18 to enjoy the expansion, as the enemies are a big step up from the original. You can just roll a level 18 character at the creation screen though (the game lets you manually level up to level 18)

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
Has anyone played this expansion? I really enjoyed it. The story was great, and the epic levels really made the gameplay more interesting. I enjoyed the ending as well.

For those who have NWN2 and thought the game was a bit "meh", I'd suggest you try the expansion. It's the game NWN2 should have been.

Hmmm does NWN2 have a full storyline similar to BG1/2? I played NWN1 because I've always been a huge fan of PC AD&D games (since AOL NWN/SSI Gold Box games), but I quickly lost interest because it felt like it tried to compensate for less story for the online/module aspect.

Also, are there feature enhancements/cumulative patches with Mask of the Betrayer that are retroactive to vanilla NWN2 (like TQ: IT for example)? Or is each game "standalone" with the ability to transfer characters?

 

[you2]

It was ok. I did not love it. Had one annoying bug with anya.

 

[kypron7]

I really hated this game. Features I dislike the most would be...

1: Spirit Eating. If you don't continually eat spirits every day, you will become weaker and weaker until you die. If you rest, or travel, your spirit points drop accordingly. Oh yeah, best part about it is, most of the time there are no spirits around to eat, so you get to sacrifice a huge portion of experience to stay alive. Yay.

2nly party member who is a fighter is a giant bear, who continually blocks doorframes and lovingly squashes you into corners continually, so that it becomes a hassle just to get around. He likes to get stuck on walls too, so you have to backtrack and find him every once in a while.

3:Absolutely zero strategy involved in fights. Unlike the classic Baldur's Gate series, where you had space to send your fighters running in, stand back with archers and shoot, and blast spells while keeping aoe damage radius in mind, the fights in NWN2 consists of enemies constantly teleporting right in the middle of your party. At this point, since it becomes impossible to see the action because of overdone spell effects, I simply cast "Meteor Shower" over and over into the thick of things, unable to see where either the enemy or my own characters are.

4:Storyline is full of obscure mysticism and spiritual mumbo jumbo. If you like to cut into enemies and see blood, forget it. Not much in the way of flesh and blood enemies, just incomprehensible spirits with strange objectives.

Really, this game is a huge step backwards for roleplaying games, I miss the old Infinity engine RPGS...

 

[Schadenfroh]

Probably going to pick this up when 1.12 comes out (due to the many issues I am reading about on the NWN2forums with 1.11), Obsidian is now my favorite game company now that EA owns Bioware. I really enjoyed NWN2.

I just wish that I could purchase a used copy (to avoid feeding Atari) without having to worry about the online multiplayer license not working

 

[StinkyPinky]

Originally posted by: kypron7
I really hated this game. Features I dislike the most would be...

1: Spirit Eating. If you don't continually eat spirits every day, you will become weaker and weaker until you die. If you rest, or travel, your spirit points drop accordingly. Oh yeah, best part about it is, most of the time there are no spirits around to eat, so you get to sacrifice a huge portion of experience to stay alive. Yay.

2nly party member who is a fighter is a giant bear, who continually blocks doorframes and lovingly squashes you into corners continually, so that it becomes a hassle just to get around. He likes to get stuck on walls too, so you have to backtrack and find him every once in a while.

3:Absolutely zero strategy involved in fights. Unlike the classic Baldur's Gate series, where you had space to send your fighters running in, stand back with archers and shoot, and blast spells while keeping aoe damage radius in mind, the fights in NWN2 consists of enemies constantly teleporting right in the middle of your party. At this point, since it becomes impossible to see the action because of overdone spell effects, I simply cast "Meteor Shower" over and over into the thick of things, unable to see where either the enemy or my own characters are.

4:Storyline is full of obscure mysticism and spiritual mumbo jumbo. If you like to cut into enemies and see blood, forget it. Not much in the way of flesh and blood enemies, just incomprehensible spirits with strange objectives.

Really, this game is a huge step backwards for roleplaying games, I miss the old Infinity engine RPGS...

Hmmm, well allow me to retort.

About point 1) Never had a problem with the spirit bar. Did you devour spirits all day or something? My craving level was basically zero and I only used Surpress and Eternal Rest, and even sleeping would drop it down by only half a dozen points.

2) Hey, Okku was awesome! Even if he did have a big ass

3) Yeah, there is a bit of spell spamming I admit. I enjoyed the combat though.

4) Well, this is subjective of course. I enjoyed the story myself. The Wall of the Faithless is unfair in my opinion and the crusade to tear it down was justified!! Damn the gods!

 

[s44]

The game was really good, yeah. But there are a bunch of endings. I got the "best" good one, but the super-evil one may be the coolest.

Don't miss the player-made mods.

Edit: Having the expansion lets you play the extra classes in the original, too.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
Has anyone played this expansion? I really enjoyed it. The story was great, and the epic levels really made the gameplay more interesting. I enjoyed the ending as well.

For those who have NWN2 and thought the game was a bit "meh", I'd suggest you try the expansion. It's the game NWN2 should have been.

Hmmm does NWN2 have a full storyline similar to BG1/2? I played NWN1 because I've always been a huge fan of PC AD&D games (since AOL NWN/SSI Gold Box games), but I quickly lost interest because it felt like it tried to compensate for less story for the online/module aspect.

Also, are there feature enhancements/cumulative patches with Mask of the Betrayer that are retroactive to vanilla NWN2 (like TQ: IT for example)? Or is each game "standalone" with the ability to transfer characters?

It has a full storyline right through out the campaign. The expansion continues on from where the original left off.

 

[StinkyPinky]

Originally posted by: s44
The game was really good, yeah. But there are a bunch of endings. I got the "best" good one, but the super-evil one may be the coolest.

Don't miss the player-made mods.

Edit: Having the expansion lets you play the extra classes in the original, too.

Some of the player mods are excellent. Have you played Night Howls in Nestlehaven? That was a commercial quality module imo (takes 6 or 7 hrs to play through)

 

[skace]

From what I've heard, NWN2's expansion is one of the best PC RPGs in awhile. With it's only honest competition being Witcher. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to play it myself yet. It pisses me off to no end that I lost my NWN2 OC saves when my hard drive crashed. I would much rather have gone into the expansion with my own character from the original campaign. Bah.